Funding legal services for the poor benefits all of society

By Alicia Ouellette, Commentary

Published 4:16 pm, Tuesday, April 4, 2017

President Donald Trump's 2018 budget would eliminate all funding for the Legal Services Corp., effectively closing courthouse doors to the most vulnerable Americans. Civil legal services are critical to our nation's promise of justice for all. Congress can and should stand up for LSC.

People facing life-altering crises — parents losing custody of their children, families facing wrongful foreclosures, veterans wrongly denied benefits, the elderly scammed of life savings by fraudulent businesses, farmers struck by natural disaster — need the help of lawyers. Navigating the legal system without the help of a lawyer can be catastrophic, especially in cases in which only one side is represented. LSC-funded lawyers provide free legal services to 1.9 million low-income people annually. With a legal aid attorney at their side, people in crisis have a fighting chance for justice.

LSC-funded services provide measurable societal benefits. Dozens of cost-benefit studies have documented a high return on investment in legal services. For example, a 2016 report by the New York City Bar Association concludes that an investment of $199 million to provide legal representation in eviction and foreclosure proceedings would provide a net cost savings to the city of $320 million by preventing families from seeking emergency shelter and lowering law enforcement and medical costs related to the homeless. Preventing foreclosure and domestic violence and recouping the life savings of the elderly lost to scammers are measurable public goods. Civil legal services save communities, provide direct client and family benefits, and ensure the value received for LSC appropriations.

LSC funding is minimal in the context of the federal budget. The LSC received $385 million for fiscal year 2016. If anything, LSC is underfunded. The United States ranks last among high-income countries on the question of whether people can access and afford civil justice.

This shortcoming is nothing new. In fact, Congress established the nonprofit and bipartisan LSC in 1974 with the mission of providing equal access to justice. LSC is the largest source of civil legal aid funding in this country. LSC programs help people who live in households with annual incomes at or below 125 percent of the federal poverty guidelines, a category that includes almost one in five Americans. At 2016 funding levels, 80 percent of the civil legal needs of the eligible population are not being met. The president's budget would make the situation worse.

As the heads of more than 150 law firms explained in a letter to the president, "Eliminating the Legal Services Corp. will not only imperil the ability of civil legal aid organizations to serve Americans in need, it will also vastly diminish the private bar's capacity to help these individuals. The pro bono activity facilitated by LSC funding is exactly the kind of public-private partnership the government should encourage, not eliminate."

Civil legal aid programs and pro-bono minded private attorneys depend on LSC. More importantly, everyday citizens depend on LSC. It is the backbone of a system that levels the legal playing field, giving even the vulnerable among us a fair chance at equal justice.